Wednesday, October 27, 2010
1 Corinthians 10:12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!
A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD
A mighty Fortress is our God, A trusty Shield and Weapon;
He helps us free from every need That hath us now o'ertaken.
The old evil Foe Now means deadly woe;
Deep guile and great might Are his dread arms in fight;
On Earth is not his equal.
During Reformation times there were days dark and dismal when the future looked bleak. More than once on such occasions, Luther turned to his friends and said, "Come, let us sing the 46th Psalm." And they would join their voices in his hymn on that psalm -- "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott," A Mighty Fortress is Our God. There are days in our lives when we do well to recall the Bible truths expressed in this classic hymn.
The opening lines of the first verse leave no doubt that our God and Savior is our Strength. But the way Luther then goes on makes it plain that confidence in our Creator-Redeemer should not drift into complacency. Satan is still a formidable foe, full of evil cunning. Luther experienced this often and so do we.
Bad enough that the Evil One is able to stir up terrible trouble, to threaten life and limb, but how often doesn't he trick men even into twisting the Gospel into something else. For example, he has cleverly led some to emphasize the Spirit's work in the believer’s life in such a way that people place their confidence in what they do instead of in what Christ has done.
The Devil is powerful and clever, and we are no match for him on our own. But this hymn doesn't end here and we shall soon see why, despite Satan's "deep guile and great might," we are confident that our God is "A mighty Fortress" and "A trusty Shield and Weapon."
